


Just Go Home

by broadway_hufflepuff



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Because his children are sad, Friendship, Gen, Hawkins (Stranger Things), Justice for Barbara "Barb" Holland, Minor Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Nancy Wheeler Is a Good Friend, Nancy Wheeler is a Good Sister, Past Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler, Sad, Spoilers, Ted Wheeler does not enjoy his chicken
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 03:57:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21009356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broadway_hufflepuff/pseuds/broadway_hufflepuff
Summary: How, Nancy wonders, can you get over the loss of a best friend? How can you forget that you ditched her to hang out with a boy? How can you forget that your mistakes cost Barb her life? How can you pretend that everything is okay, when it's not?





	Just Go Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [asexualjuliet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexualjuliet/gifts).

> Hi guys!! Lowkey REALLY proud of this one!  
This is my take on Nancy's feelings about losing Barb. As we all know, Barb was pretty much given the short end of the stick and it made me SUPER mad??? So... I wrote this. 
> 
> This IS canon and the characters are not mine, they belong to Netflix.
> 
> Please don't repost!  
Thank you!

**_BARBARA HOLLAND: HAWKINS TEEN GIRL, MISSING, JUST DAYS AFTER YOUNG BOY PRESUMED DEAD _**reads the headline Sunday morning. Ted and Karen had tried to shove it under other magazines- to divert Nancy and Mike away from the haunting words, but you can't cover up something you already know.

* * *

Barb Holland is gone. And nobody cares.

Her smile is forgotten and her shadow has disappeared, yet nobody looks farther than Steve's house, nobody roams farther than they can see. This is because Will had _some_ friends. But Barb only had Nancy.

And Nancy had told her to _just go home._

* * *

Barbara Holland left Steve Harrington's late one night, and was never seen again. The three last words she heard were 'just go home.' 

The very last name she uttered was "Nancy."

* * *

_**BOY BACK FROM DEAD: ONE HAWKINS MYSTERY SOLVED**_ becomes the next headline. Will Byers- alive. Barbara Holland- missing.

No one bothers to look for her.

Mike Wheeler- relieved. Nancy Wheeler- a mess.

* * *

_How,_ Nancy wonders, _can you get over the loss of a best friend? How can you forget that you ditched her to hang out with a boy? How can you forget that your mistakes cost Barb her life? How can you pretend that everything is okay, when it's _not?

"Bullshit," is the word she yells at Steve weeks later, her sweater stained with punch. "Bullshit, Steve Harrington. You're _bullshit_."

She's drunk, but part of her means it. They killed Barb. _She _was the reason.

Jonathan Byers drives her home, but all Nancy can think of is how the last time she got angry at a party, she never saw that person again.

_Was 'bullshit' going to be her last words to Steve Harrington?_

* * *

_**BARBARA HOLLAND: HAWKINS GIRL DEAD AFTER CHEMICAL LEAK FROM HAWKINS LABRATORY **_becomes the lie the papers print across the globe. It's bad enough nobody cared enough to look for her, but now her death is a mockery. 

The lab is closed, but that doesn't solve the problem.

Because Mike is mixed up in this, and he's almost lost his best friend, and Nancy has already lost hers, and she's _not _planning on losing her brother.

* * *

Barbara Holland would have known how to _fix_ this. How to escape the Upside Down, how to help Nancy be okay, how to keep Mike and Jonathan _safe-_

But Barbara Holland was dead.

And Nancy-

Nancy had told her to _just go home._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please comment and leave kudos, it would be appreciated!


End file.
